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About the performer

Simon Keenlyside

SIMON KEENLYSIDE (Prospero) was born in London; he studied zoology at Cambridge and singing with John Cameron at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

He made his operatic debut at the Hamburg State Opera as Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro). He has since sung in Geneva, San Francisco, Sydney, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Vienna, Munich, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, at the Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Milan, in Ferrara, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He recently sang both Don Giovanni with La Monnaie and Wolfram with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Tokyo.

Keenlyside enjoys extensive concert work, appearing with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Abbado, the Berlin Philharmonic under Abbado, the City of Birmingham Symphony under Rattle, the London Symphony Orchestra under Colin Davis, the Philharmonia under Dohnányi and Sawallisch, the Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst, the Vienna Philharmonic under Muti, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Mackerras, and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Welser-Möst.

Keenlyside has appeared in recital in New York, San Francisco, Lisbon, Geneva, Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Ferrara, Rome, Brussels, London, and Graz, at the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Salzburg, Munich, and Schubertiade Festivals, and at La Scala Milan and both the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna. He is also part of Trisha Brown's choreographed Winterreise, which has been performed at the Holland, Mostly Mozart (New York), Lucerne, and Melbourne Festivals, at the Barbican, London and at La Monnaie, Brussels.

For EMI he has recorded two recital discs with Malcolm Martineau, of Schubert and Strauss, and - for Hyperion - a disc of Schumann Lieder with Graham Johnson. His recent recordings include Des Knaben Wunderhorn under Rattle for EMI, the title role in Don Giovanni under Abbado for DG, Carmina Burana under Thielemann for DG, Marcello in La bohème under Chailly for Decca, the title role in Billy Budd under Hickox, Papageno in The Magic Flute under Mackerras for Chandos, and Count Almaviva in the Grammy-winning Le nozze di Figaro under Jacobs for Harmonia Mundi.